Door operator



May 24, 1932.

J. B. HASKELL DOOR OPERATOR Filed Jan. 5, 1931 lll-IIL Patented May 24,1932 APA'ralsrr oFFlcE .unas n.. or vLormvriaaaa, mason Doon ornmroa Aapplication mea January s, 1931. serial no.' 506,576.

My invention provides an extremely sim-L ple,- low cost but highlyecient door oper# ator especially adapted for opening and closing garagedoors, but a'dapted'generally` for the opening and closing of swingingclosures; and generally stated, the invention conslsts of the noveldevices, combinations of devlces, and arrangement of parts' vhereinafterdescribed and defined' in the claims.

This improved door operator includes as its major element a lever ofnovel construction connected and operated in a novel manner. The powerdevice for operatin this lever may take various forms which s ould be anextensible connection such as a cylinder' and piston, a rack and pinionor the like arranged to transmit power from a fixed base of reaction toan offset portion of the lever and through the lever directly to thedoor A reciprocating motor made up of cylinder and iston is especiallyadapted to be operated l? compressed air and hence such a device 1sdesignated as a pneumatic door operator; but it will be understood thatthe term pneumatic as well as the term door -is used in a liberal sense,the former to include fluids under pressure, and the latter to indicateswinging closures such as are more commonly designated as doors and .30gates.

In the accompanying drawings, which illustrate the invent1on,likecharacters indicate like parts throughout the several views.

Referring to the drawings Fig. 1 is a fragmentary view in front oroutside elevation showing the door operator applied to a garage door;

Fig. 2 is a horizontal section taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1 and' Fig.3 is a view 'partly in elevation and partly in vertical section showingthe cylinder, piston and co-operating air control connections includinga reversible two-way valve.

dicated by the numeral 4 and the door which is connected to theframework by hinges 5, is indicated by the numeral 6. Rigidly secured onthe door at the outer side thereof is abracket 7 provided with anupwardly procylinder.

In Figs. 1 and 2, the door framework is injecting roller-equipped stud8. .The numeral 9 indicates av bracket that is rigidly secured to theframework 4 above the top of the door at a point above the door opening,inwardfrom the door hinge but outward of the bracket 7. The bracket 9 isprovided with a depending stud 10 to which is pivoted one fend of acam-acting lever 11.. This lever 11 is provided with a long cani" slotor cam- Way 12 in which the roller-equipped stud 8 60 of the doorbracket 7 is arranged to work. Outward of its slot 12, the lever 11 is-pro- V.vided with anv intermediate laterally offset crank-actingportion 13 to which a head 14 is pivoted. f l The cylinder 15 ofthereciprocating motor,

at one end, is pivotally connected at 16 to a bracket 17 rigidly securedon the framework 1 above the intermediate portion of the door openlng.Working in the cylinder 15 is a 70 plston 18, the stem 19 of which worksthrough a stuffing box 20 in the free end of the pivoted Thel projectingend .of the piston stem 19 is secured to the pivoted head 14 and henceis pivotally connected to the offset portion 13 of the cam-acting lever11.

Small exible air pipes 21 and 22 are connected, respectively, to thepivoted and free end portions of the cylinder 15. These pipes 21 and 22extend from ports 23 and 24, re- 80 spectively, to a valve casing 25that is suitably supported on the upper portion of the door framework 4.This valve casing'25 has an air inlet port 26 and an air exhaust' port27. An air pipe .28 that extends from a` suitable source of air under,compression is connected to the air intake port 26. Worln'ng in thevalve casing 25 is an oscillatory valve head 29 that is connected to anoperating arm 30 exposed outside of Athe casing 25. 90 This valve headcan be operated either manually atwill, or automatically, but for thepurpose of this case may be a hand-operated valve.

The positions of the various parts when the door is closed are indicatedby full lines in Figs. 1 and 2, and the positions of the parts when thedoor is opened are indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 2. Also Fig. 3indicates the position of the valve head 29 and of the 100 piston -whenthe doorris closed. When the and the inner end of the c linder will becon-Y nected to exhaust, and, o course, that is` the position in whichsaid valve head will be set\l to cause closing of the door. When thedoor one door. Where double swinglng doors are is to be ol ened,the-valve head and its arm are oscillate to -the position shown by-dotted lines in Fig. 3, thereby connecting the inner end of cylinder 15to compressed air supply and the outer end of said cylinder to exhaust,and this, of course, will cause the piston to move outward or toward thefree end of the cylinder. f

The crank-acting portion `of lever 11 will, of course, have its greateste'ective length when moved at approximately a right an le to the planeof the door openin In t e initial door-opening movement, e saidcrank-acting portion 13 of lever 11 has considerably less than itsmaximum effective length or leverage, but at that time, theroller-equipped I stud 8 of the door bracket 7 is located in the camslot 12 very close to the lever ivot 10 so that the door will be given avery s ow initial opening movement but under very eiective andrelatively great force from the cylinder and piston. When the door is inits closed yp0- sition, shown by full lines in Fig. 2, stud 8 is at theinner extremity of slot 12 of lever 11 and crank 14 is relatively closeto its deadl center in respect to pivots 10 and 16. With thlsarrangement, under opening movement of the door as the stud 8 movesoutward of slot 12, the direct effect is to start the opening movementof the door with relatively great power and slow movement, and as thestud 8 moves outward in slot 12, the direct effect is to increase thespeed of movement of the doors since the ratio of the distances of stud8 and pin 14 from pivot 10 increases, and a'small arcuate movement ofpin 14 causesv a relatively large arcuate movement of stud 8.Indirectly, the outward movement of stud 8 in slot 12 decreases thespeed of movement of pin 14 b increasing the lever arm of the resistingorce-(of the door), and this offsets to some extent the direct effect ofthe outward movement of stud 8. The' direct effect is further offset bythe decreasing speed of rotation of the crank 13, as the same approachesits dead center. The net or resulting eect with the arrangementillustrated and de scribed is to start both opening and closingmovements with relatively great power and slow speed, and to increasesthe speed of the door opening and closing movements between extremepositions.

This arrangement affords the desired slow movements and relatively greatpower for starting the door both from closed and open positions, andgives an accelerated or relatively rapid intermediate movement to thedoor.

Again referrin to Fi 2, it will' be noted that when the oor is c osed,the lever 18 lies close to the door frame with its slot 12 aral- -lelthereto. By mounting the cylin er to oscillate, intermediate connectionssuch as links between the 'piston and the leverare made unnecessary.

- 'lhe operator, as shown, is supplied to but used, twooperating devicesmay be employed', one for each door, in which case both 0perators couldbe operated simultaneously by a single valve. Also if preferred, a sinle operator could be used for two doors and e one dooor connected to theother for simultaneous swinging movements by f devices such as hithertoprovided and well known for that pup-pose. l p ery obviously, a devicesuch as this can be very quickly applied to garage doors and the like.It is im ortant, however, that the brackets 7 and 9 mal relation andthat they should both be a plied a considerable distance inward from te' door hinge so that the force from the motor will be more eiective inmoving the door and would produce less strain on the door than with thesaid brackets applied close to the axis of the door hinge.

What I claim is: 1. The combination with a door frame and a door hingedthereto, of a bracket applied -to the door inward of its hinge, a secondbracket applied to the door frame above the door between the door hingeand the door bracket, a cam acting lever pivoted `to the second notedbracket and having a long cam slot and an intermediatelaterally-projecting crank portion, said door bracket having aprojectlon workingl in the slot of said cam lever, a cylinder supportsecured to the door frame, a cylinder pivotally connected to saidcylinder support at one end, and a piston Working in said cylinder andhaving a stem connected to the crank-acting portion of said cam lever,and means for controlling a supply of motive fluid to saidc linder forreciprocating the same in one direction to open the door and in theother direction to close the door.

2. The combination with a door frame and a door hinged thereto, of abracket applied to the door inward of its hinge, a second bracketapplied to the door frame above the door between the door hinge and thedoor bracket, a cam acting lever pivoted to the second noted bracket andhavlng a long cam slot and an intermediate laterally-projecting crankportion, said door bracket having a projection working in the slot ofsaid cam lever, a cylinder support secured to the door frame, a cylinderpivotally connected to said cylinder support at one end, and a pistonworking in said cylinder and having a stem connected to the crank-actingportion of said applied in quite close norllt . working in the slot ofsaid lever, a cylinder mounted from the door frame, and a piston Workingin said cylinder and connected to the offset crank portion of saidlever, and fluid pressure means for reciprocating said piston to openand close the door.

4. The combination with afdoor frame and l a door hinged thereto, of abracket applied to the door inward of its hinge, a second bracketapplied to the door frame above the door, a cam lever 4pivoted to thesecond noted bracket and having a lon slot and an intermediate laterallyprojecting crank portion, said door bracket having a projection workingin the slot of said lever, and an'endwise extensible thrust connectionanchored to the door frame structure and pivotally connected to thelaterally projecting crank portion of said lever and operative on thelatter to vopen and close the door.

5. The combination with a door frame hav- I ing a door hinged thereto,of a bracket ap'- plied to the door inward of its hinge, of a secondbracket applied to the door frame above the door, a cam lever pivoted tothe second noted bracket and having a slot and an intermediate lateralprojecting crank portion, said door bracket having a projection workingin the slot of said lever, and an operating connection anchored to thedoor frame structure and yattached to the laterally projecting crankportion ofsaid lever and perative on the latter to open and close theoor.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

JAMES B. HASKELL.

